Growing pains are especially difficult when the undead are attacking… such is the case in Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse.
On their final camp out, teenagers Ben Goudy (played by Tye Sheridan) and Carter Grant (Logan Miller) have lost interest in their Scouts group, preferring to sneak out to attend a secret party rather than hurt the feelings of their friend (Joey Morgan). Little did they know a dimwitted janitor would raise the dead with a pack of Tic Tac breath mints. Man, those things are tasty and incredibly powerful!

Within hours, the town is deserted and the local military prepare to clean it up with aerial bombs, not realizing the Secret Seniors Party is taking place. The guys team up with a stripper (Sarah Dumont) in hopes of surviving the endless hordes of Zombies and possibly saving Carter’s Sister (Halston Sage) along the way, in a suicide mission.

I had high hopes for this movie. I really did. The TV advertisements actually looked decent, but once I discovered it was only being released via a specific chain of movie theaters — in addition to its very quick Video On Demand arrival — I immediately realized its box-office returns would not be overwhelming. After renting the movie via Redbox, now I realize why the movie made less than $15 million worldwide and almost broke even with its budget. For a movie that bills itself as a horror comedy (featuring some TNA), there’s not many real scares… or laughs. That is unfortunate.

There’s a never-ending series of unfunny gags involving Scout Leader Rogers (David Koechner), a ridiculous cameo by Cloris Leachman and an homage the Dead Rising series of video games. Oh yeah, the main characters not only communicate with the walking dead, but they all sing a Britney Spears song together. Despite all of that, the movie’s just not very fun. The lone standout is Sarah Dumont, but even she can’t carry the entire weight of the movie on her sturdy shoulders. Having said that, it’s totally worth a free one-day rental.